3 Success Markers of Happy Creators

Are you on the right path?

What defines your success? Can you answer without thinking about it? Or do you need a week, a month, or decades to figure out what it is you strive for? What makes your blood hot and your mind fly? I don’t want to say that you not knowing it means you have a long way to go to success, but after reading this you might think so for yourself.

Obnoxiously successful people are the type that don’t give up. For many, they think that means they are always winning and never losing. That, however, couldn’t be further from the truth.

Failure is Mandatory

“Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”—Elon Musk

They tend to fail a lot on their journey to and through success. But it doesn’t stop them. They keep working to reach their goals and their dreams because all other ways for them are false. Even in failure, there are lessons to be learned. A successful person doesn’t shirk those lessons or hide from them. They face them.

When Elon Musk moved from South Africa to Canada to escape the draft, he had sights on the big leagues of industry. Though he failed at landing a job at any of the major tech companies back then, he didn’t wallow. Instead, he came up with a solution for himself and others that would lead to him becoming a 28-year-old millionaire and giving him the starter cash and connections to launch SpaceX(pun intended), which might be what gets humans to colonize space.

Not only did Musk get hit with failure right out of the gate, but others who have found caves of success also have fell flat on their faces. It’s this hard fall and return to the mission that separates successful people from everyday people.

Most of the time, these lists of successful habits and people include the same dreary white guys doing the same capitalistic things. While I opened with Musk to pull in those wannabe billionaire bros, this list is actually going to look at a wide range of successful people and their habits.

Despite what many writers and editors on Medium may try and get readers to believe. Success isn’t white male and success isn’t about the earnings.

Success is the commitment. Success is the goal. Success is diverse.

Unhampered Self-Reflection

“Persist. That is, if you continue to work on your craft and continue to improve and continue to submit, you will eventually breakthrough. I’ve found this to be true.”—N.K. Jemisin

One of the most successful contemporary writers of any genre is award-winning author and MacArthur recipient, N.K. Jemisin author of the Broken Earth series, The City We Become, and more. If you’re a writer or reader of literary speculative fiction and haven’t picked up any of her books, I suggest grabbing her short story collection How Long ’til Black Future Month? The introduction to that collection outlines perfectly why Jemisin was primed for success even from the beginning.

And it had less to do with simple persistence and more to do with unhampered self-reflection. That mixed with the other qualities like accepting and growing from failure helped Jemisin reach the heights that she’s at now. She went from being an unpublished, debt-ridden writer, consistently working at her craft and career to slowly becoming one of the most famous and well-known authors in the world.

Funny enough, Jemisin began her career as a writer out of a need for some extra cash on the side. Nothing more. She didn’t have this big idea of success.

No. She had a grand idea of writing great stories well.

Reading through Jemisin’s blog, AMA’s, and other interviews along with the introduction to How Long ’til Black Future Month? shows how Jemisin is willing to not only look at and reflect on her past failures but that even during those failures she kept an eye on improving, on trying to learn as much as she could to prepare for a future of writing great stories well.

Commit to the process, not the end goal.

Unshakeable Focus

“I am here because when I was young, I wanted very badly to be a writer, I wanted to be a filmmaker.”—Lana Wachowski

While successful people may stand solid against failure and unflinching self-reflection, that’s not all. Those things alone will make someone mentally and emotionally strong but without unshakeable focus and determination, you’re dead in the water, drowning in circles.

The Wachowski Sisters have been working in the film-making and writing game for their whole lives. And that’s not an understatement.

When they were young, they wrote and recorded plays and movies. Some based on other’s work, but others were wholly original. They are writers. Storytellers. And they have never shaken from that. Their true north is known and has guided them to one success after another.

Their successes aren’t, of course, without failure. The first couple of screenplays they wrote bombed. There was interest. Many producers thought their movies were too weird and uncommercial. Like the successes they are, they didn’t step down from their roles and try something new.

No.

They wrote Bound. A lesbian crime noir that they believed would be more marketable and give them the credit to write the type of movies like the Matrix. And it worked. With an all-star cast and their unflinching drive to make great movies, the Wachowski’s were able to win over Hollywood and get the funding and support for the subsequent movies.

What is Success to You?

Success is liminal. It is individual. It is not based on anything material, though material things can come from it. So when you look at your life, at yourself, what does success mean to you? How are you achieving it, working toward it every day?

Or are you not? Is success something that you believe will come to you while you’re trying a thousand different things to find yourself? While this method of work is beneficial, it may even lead to the road of success, but it does not lead to success.

You get me?

Focus on what your passions are, what things spark you past failure and into innovation, and don’t be afraid to look at the parts of yourself that are weak, lacking. Without close examination of our faults, we’re doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again like some bad history book.

Don’t turn away from what you love, from failure, and do the work necessary to reach success. Whatever that may mean to you.

Aigner Loren Wilson is a queer Black speculative fiction author with memberships in SFWA, HWA, and Codex. She was listed on the honors list for the Otherwise Fellowship award and has work in Fiyah, Tordotcom, Vice, and more. She offers a writing craft newsletter to people who want to become better writers and publish quality pieces.